Water Resource Construction Costs Could Be Reduced if Value Engineering Were Applied to More Designs and Applied Earlier in the Design Process

Gao ID: RCED-83-127 May 11, 1983

GAO evaluated the effectiveness of the Corps of Engineers' in-house value engineering (VE) program to identify whether opportunities exist to increase VE savings on water project construction.

GAO found that, although VE has reduced the Corps' water resource construction costs by about $565.7 million, greater savings could be achieved by applying VE to more project designs and by applying it earlier. The Corps needs to give increased attention to its water project VE program if maximum savings are to be realized. Further, the selection of designs to be reviewed for VE savings is vital to the success of a program. Given the current budgetary and personnel constraints, GAO believes that more effective use of existing staff is the best alternative for achieving greater VE savings.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Hugh J. Wessinger Team: General Accounting Office: Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division Phone: (202) 275-5489


The Justia Government Accountability Office site republishes public reports retrieved from the U.S. GAO These reports should not be considered official, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Justia.